Lively

Brett Milder Profile

Lady

Of New

Britain

Sister Mary Editha is a lively lady of the Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain. She was born at Glenquarry, NSW, in 1890, and is one of the 10 children of Mr. and Mrs. Farquhar Macßae.

After attending the Glenquarry State School, Editha became a boarder at the convent school at Bowral. At the age of 15 she entered the convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at Kensington, Sydney, and in 1907 made her religious vows.

During the next 20 years Sister Editha was a teacher at various primary schools in NSW and Queensland, and then spent 10 years at Thursday Island.

In 1938 Sister Editha arrived in Rabaul and was put in charge of the Yang Ching Chinese school.

She was there when the Japanese occupied the territory.

When the allied bombing be came serious, the nuns were forced to take shelter at the Ramale Camp near Kokopo, where all the missionaries were interned under terrible conditions for the next three years.

At the end of the war Sister Editha ran a school for natives and mixed-race children at Kokopo for six months with the help of Sisters M. Immaculate and M. Columba. She then went on leave in Australia, after which she returned to teach in Rabaul.

Sister Editha first resumed work with the Chinese school, and later taught at St. Joseph’s Malay School.

After nine years in Rabaul she was sent to Vunavavar where she spent the next 12 years at St.

Anthony’s Primary “T” School.

Here she took an interest in athletics, and her pupils won several territory championships.

Three of them were sent to repre sent New Guinea at the South Pacific Games at Noumea.

Sister Editha celebrated her silver jubilee as a nun at Thursday Island, and her golden jubilee at Kensington with two of her colleagues, Sisters Adrian and Benedict.

Her diamond jubilee, at Vunavavar in 1967, was attended by friends of all nationalities.

She then went to Australia for a whistle-stop, tour of NSW and Queensland to visit her countless friends and relatives. Her stops included Bowral, Canberra, Goulburn, Mayfield, Singleton, Tamworth and Ballina. She was interviewed by the Press and radio stations all the way home.

Her return luggage included a drum, a melodica, two guitars and 18 flutes, all gifts from admirers in Australia to enable her to start a school band at the Primary “T” at Napapar, near

Rabaul.

Brett Hilder.